Fear, fear, fear, plain old fear to clip and unclip. Advice please!

[Maye]

L-Bell,
Welcome to Team Estrogen Forums!! I'm Maye, the original poster who created this thread. I totally understand your dilemma since I was so afraid of the platform to clip-less conversion that I almost gave up road biking completely. I hated the feeling of my heart pounding and fear of riding the bike, it was frustrating. In this forum I found a great support system/group that told me that I don't have to use the clip-less pedals until I'm ready and gave the me the advice and techniques that were right for me and that I was looking for. Which I'm very THANKFUL!! In my opinion, road biking is very overwhelming (for me) at the beginning. A lot of things to learn. For example: bike handling, traffic laws, security and safety, how to change a flat, how to shift plus clip-less pedals, phew!! For me that was WAY too much. So after a lot of money spent on pedals (3 pair of Shimano's, one pair of SpeedPlay lights and one of the CrankBrothers one that I returned...sigh...have to sell some, I know) I decided to take it easy and that's when I found these pedals (see picture below). These are the Shimano's PD M-324 clip less/clip pedals. They are mountain bike pedals, I know :-) In my opinion these are the best pedals for somebody learning to clip/unclip. I used the platform side for around 100 miles to get to know the bike and to learn other important things about road bikes. For the last 20 miles I have been using the clip-less side (yay!) and I feel that this are perfect for me and my level of experience at this moment. I unclip when I know that I'm going to encounter people, cars, intersections, strollers, stop signs or other situations that I know I will feel nervous. I'm using mountain bike shoes with recessed cleats which makes easy to use the platform side as well. So no slippery cleats in the shoes when over the platforms or walking , which used to add another level of uneasiness to this whole ordeal. I'm probably an 80% confident with these pedals and I will keep practicing and riding until I feel that I can make the change to a more sophisticated clip-less system. But at my own pace and ONLY when I'm ready. In the meantime, I will keep riding